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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Learning the Faith: Healing the Spirit Series with Fr. Brian Mullady, OP

If you are around me for any length of time you will learn that I hate getting up early, but love being up early. I hit the snooze a few times this morning, but managed to be up by 6:00. After finishing Lauds, I made breakfast and turned on EWTN. There was a very good, half-hour show called Healing the Spirit. It was, I believe, episode 7 which was about grace and prayer.

I have known about the Dominican priest, Fr. Mullady, as I had seen him many times on the network and he is a contributor to Homiletic and Pastoral Review - the only subscription that I have kept (it's not news based so the information is timeless and the writers are solid). Like other EWTN personalities he is very catechetically and theologically solid. He speaks with great simplicity.

He spoke about the various attitudes we can have concerning prayer from wanting to find "the right method" to enter contemplation to thinking that "if only it weren't for [fill in the blank], I could live more holy". He brought up a quote by Fr. Dubay - another well-loved spiritual master and EWTN personality that I thought was great. [post edited here for original quote taken from, The Fire Within, page 247]

Most people would not even cross the street to witness an unobtrusive act of patience being put into practice, but they will cross an ocean to visit the locale of an alleged apparition. While both Teresa and John appreciated an authentic vision, they were empathetic that a simple act of pure love is of more value.

He mentioned St. Teresa of Avila and the mansions and covered some common errors people make with regards to prayer. He really packed a lot - effectively, in just 30 minutes.

If someone has the book in which Fr. Dubay makes this statement, please write it into the combox or email me at TeDeumBlog@gmail.com. I would like to edit this post with the exact quote. It was classic Fr. Dubay: powerful, yet simple.

Anyway, I highly recommend watching this series and if you are blessed with a secure job right now, get the DVD's. You would be supporting EWTN while at the same time, having a great spiritual watering hole you will likely watch more than once. Fr. Mullady has a number of other great talks on DVD.

Samples from HPR can be found online. They publish one or two articles per month online out of the dozen or so that are in the print edition. It is one of the best monthly, Catholic reads you can get. It even has a section of homilies for the Sundays of the upcoming month so if you are in a parish where you get a lot of namby-pamby, you'll appreciate them.

I just got an email that through the HPR Online site there is a special trial offer to get HPR for one year at $9.95 (11 issues). Try this periodical - I can guarantee you will renew at the regular cost of $26 for 11 issues. I read it cover to cover when I get mine.

Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron

St. John of the Cross

Dark Night of the Soul (2.2:3)...

"...the devil causes many to believe in vain visionsand false prophecies; and strives to make them presumethat God and the saints are speaking with them; and they often trust their own fancy. And the devil is also accustomed, in this state, to fill them with presumption and pride, so that they become attracted by vanity and arrogance, and allow themselves to be seen engaging in outward acts which appear holy, such as raptures and other manifestations. Thus they become bold with God, and lose holy fear, which is the key and the custodian of all the virtues; and in some of these souls so many are the falsehoods and deceits which tend to multiply, and so inveterate do they grow, that it is very doubtful if such souls will return to the pure road of virtue and true spirituality."